1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image forming apparatus, an image setting system, and an image setting method, in which setting information is updated.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, since a number of functions included in an image forming apparatus has been increased, a number of setting items has been increased to operate the functions. Therefore, device settings have become complex to install a new function and to update applications in the image forming apparatus, and workload of an administrator has been increased.
To solve the above described problem, a technology in which a setting operation is not required for each of image forming apparatuses has been proposed. For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2008-72318 discloses a technology in which the server retains setting information for each of the image forming apparatuses, each of the image forming apparatuses acquires the setting information corresponding to devices thereof, and the acquired setting information is registered.
However, in the above described technologies, since the setting information is retained for each of the devices, the workload of the administrator related to the setting information is increased when the number of the devices is increased. In a case in which settings are collectively conducted for the entirety of devices connected to a network, the setting information for each of the devices is required to be the same information. Thus, great workload of the administrator is required to perform settings for each of the devices for each of the image forming apparatuses.
On the other hand, in the case in which settings are collectively conducted for the entirety of devices, a push-type setting method using a WebService/Management Information Base (MIB) may be considered to send and set the setting information for the image forming apparatuses. In a case of the push-type setting method, disadvantageously, if there are a large number of devices to be set, it takes time to apply the setting information. If one of the image forming apparatuses is not powered on, the settings are not collectively conducted.